Here’s five reasons why I’m loving Cottage Life.
1. The sunsets are spectacular. Disclosure: I might have taken more photos of the sunset thanI did of my meals. Shocking!!
2. There’s a sauna at the cottage but it’s not your average sauna. It has a wood oven in there – and it takes over an hour to heat up the sauna. Nothing beats a “steamie” followed by a dip into the cool (errr….cold) water. This is a priceless experience.
3. I get to cook without having to go to the grocery store (every 2 seconds) cause I forgot an ingredient!! This week I whipped up an eggplant dish – even though I forgot some key ingredients. Sometimes it’s great to improvise.
4. I also get the chance to create my own “signature” cocktails. This past weekend, I took these 4 ingredients..placed it into my Kitchen Aid Diamond Blender and bingo…da best drink ever. ps I froze the raspberries. I think @cocktaildeeva would be proud. (I think)
5. I get to read and relax on the dock. Yes – that’s right I get to read. There’s no internet or TV…which is an invitation for me to get lost in some books! Believe it or not – I just figured out how to download books from the library. This weekend I read: The Rosie Project by Graeme C. Simsion. I actually found myself laughing out loud a few times, which is a really good sign that I enjoyed the book. Feel free to send me any book suggestions K?
I’m sure I will come up with another 5 reasons why I’m loving Cottage Life. Stay tuned.
cocktails, CoctktailDeeva, cook, cottage, Graeme C. Simsion, Kitchen Aid, library, read, Sauna, Sunset, The Rosie Project
Recently, I made a new friend on Twitter. When I saw that she had a blog called Fables and Focaccia, I knew that she would be the perfect person to invite over to help me use my Kitchen Aid Pasta Attachment. Sadly the Pasta Attachment had been sitting in a box for MONTHS. I was all too thrilled that Jenny agreed to come over and share her expertise with me.
The evening started off with wine. (of course).
Then Jenny started to mix a few ingredients together and do her magic. As for me….I was too busy taking photos and drinking wine to actually participate.!
Before you knew it – we had an amazing meal of pasta in browned butter with fresh sage. Even though I’m on a carb free diet, I couldn’t resist and dug into this bowl of fresh pasta.
Jenny was even kind of enough to share her recipe with me:
INGREDIENTS TO MAKE FRESH PASTA (we doubled this recipe)
1 whole egg
100g all purpose flour (if “00” flour can be found it makes a much lighter pasta dough)
Pinch of salt (1/4 tsp approx.)
1 teaspoon olive oil
DIRECTIONS: Mix by hand, or pulse in a food processor with “s” blade till the flour becomes yellow and moistened, then knead by hand till completely incorporated, (5 mins)
Then cover and let rest for 20 mins.
Them divide into manageable pieces, and start rolling it out with a rolling pin, or with a pasta machine.
* Jenny has made fresh pasta before and was totally in love with the Kitchen Aid Pasta Attachement. She loved how quickly and effortlessly it was to make fresh pasta!!
SAUCE – SAGE IN MELTED NUTTY BUTTER
Fine sea salt
1 1/2 sticks (12 tablespoons) unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
1/4 pound prosciutto, sliced 1/8-inch thick, cut into 1/8-inch dice (optional)
12 small sage leaves plus more for garnish
14 ounces fresh or dried tagliatelle
Flaky coarse sea salt
DIRECTIONS: In a small skillet, combine butter and prosciutto; heat over medium heat, stirring, until butter is foaming. Continue to heat until butter just begins to turn a pale, golden color, then add sage and cook 1 minute more. Remove pan from heat.
Cook pasta in the boiling water until al dente (about 3 minutes for fresh pasta). Reserving 2/3 cup of the pasta cooking liquid, drain pasta and immediately transfer to a large bowl.
Add reserved pasta cooking liquid and butter sauce and toss to combine well. Season to taste with crushed flaky coarse sea salt. Garnish with sage and serve immediately
We had a blast with our “Pasta Project” and can’t wait to collaborate in the kitchen again!
A huge thanks to Kitchen Aid for this amazing Pasta Attachment and a huge thanks to Jenny for taking the time to teach me how to finally make fresh pasta.
Happy Cooking!!
Food and Foccacia, Food Blogger, FoodFables, Fresh, Kitchen Aid, Kitchen Aid Pasta Attachment, Pasta, Recipe
I was invited to a Kitchen Aid event a few weeks ago called #Attached2KitchenAid. I love my Kitchen Aid but actually had no idea about these “attachments’ till this event! I discovered that my Kitchen Aid was capable of SO much more.
There’s a pasta attachment.
An attachment so you could make your own sausage.
Also there’s a citrus attachment.
Plus an attachment to make ice cream.
I swear I had no idea that my beloved Kitchen Aid could do all of the above.
The event included Chef Lynn Crawford…who is not just a talented Chef but also a hoot!
At the end of the event, we got to select whatever Kitchen Aid attachment we wanted. What a hard decision to make! But in the end I selected the pasta attachment.
Stay tuned for another blog post. However don’t hold your breath as I have NEVER made fresh pasta before so I know I’m going to be nervous and procrastinate about this. Hopefully one of my foodie friends will come over to help me. That’s about the only way it’s going to happen!! #honest.
Attachments, Chef Lynn Crawford, Citrus, Foodie, Ice Cream, Kitchen Aid, Pasta, Sausage
For some reason I’ve never made a pavlova before. But my friend assured me, that it’s super easy to make so I tried it. I searched online (for a change) to find a recipe (thanks AllRecipes.com) and before you know it my Kitchen Aid was on full blast whipping up egg whites. What I didn’t know, is that it takes A LOT OF TIME TO BAKE. This is not at all like making cookies!! However it’s worth it.
Here’s the recipe: (taken from AllRecipes.com)
Ingredients
- 3 egg whites
- 1 pinch salt
- 1 cup white sugar
- 1 tablespoon cornstarch
- 1 teaspoon lemon juice
- 1 1/4 cups heavy whipping cream
- 1/2 cup confectioners’ sugar
- 1 pint fresh strawberries
Directions
- Preheat oven to 300 degrees F (150 degrees C). Line a sheet pan with parchment paper. Draw a 9 inch circle on the parchment. An easy way to do this is to draw around the outside of a 9 inch pan with a pencil. (I skipped this step)
- In a large bowl, beat egg whites on high speed until soft peaks form. (be patient, be patient) Add 3/4 cup of the sugar gradually, while continuing to whip. Make sure sugar is completely dissolved. Mix together the remaining 1/4 cup sugar with the cornstarch; lightly fold into meringue with lemon juice.
- Spread a layer of meringue to fit circle on parchment, approximately 1/4 inch thick. With remainder of mixture, pipe or spoon swirls around the edges to form a shallow bowl shape.
- Bake at 300 degrees F (150 degrees C) for 1 hour. Turn off oven, but leave meringue in oven for an additional 30 minutes. When cool, the meringue should be hard on the outside, and slightly moist on the inside.
- In a large bowl, combine the cream and half a cup of confectioners sugar, and whip until thickened. Decorate with fruit of your choice; strawberries are excellent.
I’m not kidding. A pavlova is a crowd pleaser. Can’t believe I’ve never made it before!!
Happy Baking.
AllRecipes, Egg Whites, Kitchen Aid, Pavlova, Recipe, whipped cream
ContestsAugust 21st, 2012
Quite regularly I stumble upon new businesses/restaurants/services while on Twitter. My latest find is a start up called Spinzo.
I started to chat with them via twitter and liked what they were all about. Now I want to share with you, (dear readers) what Spinzo is all about. I am also going to run a contest today with Spinzo!! What’s super cool about this contest is the fact that I could pick any prize I wanted for my readers!!
They originally offered me an iPad as a gift but I said “hmmm…my readers are mostly foodies so what about a gift to KITCHEN STUFF PLUS. Thats right…you could win a $250 gift certificate to Kitchen Stuff Plus to buy anything you want.
Love. This. Store.
When I went to visit my local Kitchen Stuff Plus, I was eyeing this piece of kitchen equipment. Now who wouldn’t want to win a $250 Gift Certificate towards a purchase of one of these beauties?
One of my favorite appliances in my kitchen!!
Ok..back to Spinzo. Who are they? They are a Canadian Startup dedicated to offering dynamic pricing on great local experiences.
Want to know how to participate in this amazing contest?
All contestants have to do is post their purchase requests to the Spinzo Facebook page or Spinzo Twitter page.
These purchase requests can be about anything!
Important: (really important) Please use @momwhoruns in these requests: i.e : “I heard about #SpinzoSavesTO from @MomWhoRuns and I really want a new Kitchen Aid” (or another request like pots, cutlery etc)
Post requests to: Facebook.com/SpinzoToronto OR on Twitter.com: @spinzotoronto)
No need to leave a comment below…just head over to the Spinzo Facebook page or onto Twitter!!
So what do you think? Easy peazy contest non? Not to mention, a gift certificate to Kitchen Stuff Plus is SWEET. The contest will run from Tuesday Aug 21st to Tuesday September 4th at midnite. This contest is open to anyone in Toronto and the gift certificate can be used at any of the Kitchen Stuff Plus locations. Random.org will used to select the winner and that winner has two weeks to get in touch with me. Otherwise a new winner will be selected.
Contest, Facebook, Kitchen Aid, Kitchen Stuff Plus, Spinzo, Start Up, Toronto, twitter
